Choice: A Past Rewritten
by messymind
Summary: AU: If the path to true love was easy, we'd all have it. A statement that was never more true for Killian Jones. Killian is faced with a lot of hard choices in his quest to save his true love, but what choice will he make when he is once again faced with his past. Will he choose differently a second time around or follow the direct path to save his princess.
1. Chapter 1

**Choice: A Past Rewritten...**

**AN/ I don't own any of this but the idea...it's something that I've been thinking about for awhile and that I really wanted to get down. It's a bit AU although the beginning takes place in future Storybrooke. I hope you enjoy!**

**Part I: The Aftermath: You can't bring back the dead.**

The town was dissolute and eerily silent. He stood there seemingly alone, the town and his body having been ravaged by the battle, the battle that nobody saw coming and left nothing but death in its wake. In his arms was her limp, lifeless form. The bright light that had shined so bright, that had brought him back to the living, brutally extinguished and those eyes as green as the sea, closed forever. He carried her aimlessly through the town, unsure of where he was going and barely noticing the streets littered with corpses.

If he had been aware at all he would have noticed their friends and families bodies bent and broken, but all he could do was continue to walk. He walked on as if in a trace until he realized that his wondering had led him to their tree. The tree where upon their return from Neverland he had half jokingly carved their initials and a heart in with his hook, where after all the mess with Neal's return she made him whole again with her admission that it was him, them, she was picking and then returned his left hand. It was also where he broke his pirate code and bent down on one knee and asked her to be his forever, they sealed the deal then with true loves kiss... a kiss so powerful that Emma's magic had spilled over and surged out of her from joy. His eyes began watering again at the thought of what had occurred just a few short weeks ago.

"_Love?" "Where are we headed?" "Not that I mind this kinky blindfold" his voice chuckled as he tried in vain to pull her to him_

"_Stupid Pirate" he heard could almost hear the grin she was suppressing "Just hang on!"_

_It was then she stopped suddenly pulling off his blindfold, he realized then that they were at their tree. _

"_Did I forget our anniversary?" his face paled "Or did you just want to play with one of my other attachments you little minx." He questioned eyebrow cocked at the ready. She slapped playfully on the shoulder then._

"_You wish mister...but it is that other attachments fault we're here." She was trying hard to suppress a grin that appeared to be tugging at the corners of her mouth "Do you notice anything different?"_

_He glanced around then and noticed a small sapling planted near a slightly larger but not nearly mature tree to the right. _

"_Did you decide to take up horticultural?"_

_She laughed heartily at him and it was the most beautiful sound his ears had ever heard, it sounded of new beginnings and joy._

"_Well the slightly larger tree is an American Elm for Henry, he picked it because he said he's American and the smaller sapling is a Blue Oak, he picked that one too."_

_He looked at her in utter confusion then "A tree? Lass why would the boy be planting trees? "And why a Blue Oak?" "Have I missed some strange custom here?"_

_He caught her eyes then and his breath hitched in his throat, he was sure he'd never seen them look so bright "Well we, that is Henry and I, thought it would be nice if all of us were represented by the trees, the big one is ours and Henry has the Elm and he picked the Blue Oak because he's sure it's going to be a sister and that she'll have your impossibly blue eyes. It's corny I know, I swear it was Henry's idea..." _

_Realization of what she was telling him set in ... _

He was brought back to the ugly reality then, and he prayed to whatever Gods were listening to take him too. To end his suffering, because a life alone, without Emma, Henry and their unborn baby was not a life he wanted to live. He should have known the day she told him of the baby that something bad would happen, that his life had grown too perfect, that he didn't deserve this sort of happiness.

Hours passed as he sat with his back against the tree. He kissed her still silent face over and over and over as if willing her back to life. Running his hands through her mane of gold, his tears falling gently on her face and rolling down, the effect made it almost appear as if she was crying herself, in her sleep.

As time slipped by he must have dozed off because the next thing he knew he was awoken by gentle nudges and a broken voice calling his name.

"Killian...Killian...I don't have much time..You must wake-up..please...you're our last hope!"

His dull eyes opened to see the head nun before him, barely alive and gasping for breath.

"You...you... must... listen." Her broken voice came in spurts. "I don't have much magic left, and everyone is gone, there is a reason you survived...Emma's magic protected you...she protected you...and now you have a chance to fix all this...you and this tree ...you're both full of her magic and it might just be enough for me to send you back, back in time, to stop this from occurring."

She had his full attention then as he used what strength he had left to lift himself and Emma off the ground..."BACK?" "Can I save everyone?" "Will I remember?" "Where will I go back to?" "Can I save Emma?" A million questions raced through his mind.

"Snow's ring, she gave it to me before she died for Emma and I enchanted it, it's said this ring will led one to true love and now it will also hold all your memories. As long as you have it near you, you will never forget the events that have unfolded or Emma and hopefully you can stop them, you can save us all." Her voice seemed to increase slightly in strength then "We've not much time, I can create a portal using the tree and the magic in you but I must warn you that I have no idea where in time you'll go, you will go back...and you will be the only you but where you'll be I cannot say, hopefully I will be there to guide you but I make no promises."

"I don't care...I'll do whatever it takes to save her." His voice was panicked but assured, as he took the ring in his hand the cold metal warming his hand as it glowed softly over Emma's still body. "This can't be it, her life can't be over."

"Very well Killian, but just remember...all magic comes with a price."

There was a blinding flash then and he closed his eyes for the briefest of moments...only to open them again the ring still in his hand but the remains of Storybrooke and Emma completely gone. He stood in a small seaport village outside a tavern. A tavern that he recognised right away, a tavern from his past, the tavern that he had first met Milah...


	2. All Magic May Come with a Price,

**PartII: All Magic May Come with a Price, but Choice comes with a Price too.**

**AN/ I still don't own any of this but the idea...and it will get pretty A/U from here on out, although I'm not sure how long it's going to be, I have a lot of it mapped out but room to expand if I'm feeling up to it. Thanks so very much for the reviews, private messages, favorites and follows...hope you keep enjoying :0) The next update will probably take a little longer but I had this part finished so I figured I'd post it.**

There was a blinding flash then and he closed his eyes for the briefest of moments...only to open them again the ring still in his hand but the remains of Storybrooke and Emma completely gone. He stood in a small seaport village outside a tavern. A tavern that he recognised right away, a tavern from his past, the tavern that he had first met Milah...

He had foolishly assumed that the Blue Fairy would send him back a couple days, weeks or even months. Instead he finds himself back over 300 years, back to where his true journey to Emma really began with a choice he made to fall in love with another woman, a choice he made that eventually led to the light being extinguished in her eyes as well. Oh how the Gods must enjoy toying with him, but alas nothing in his life has ever run a smooth course. Why should this be any different?

"Capt'n!" A firm smack connects with his back, and he turns to face Briggs "are we goin' in Sir?" "t men be gett' n restless."

"You blokes go ahead, I've got some business to take care of first...and save me some ale."

"An a beauty or two...right Capt'"

"Aye Briggs.." "Aye." His voice lacking any real conviction.

And all of a sudden it really sinks in, that he's twenty-five again, has two hands and is the youngest Pirate Captain in all the realms. But now he's all those things with the knowledge of what's to come. He looks down at his clenched left fist, opening it slowly to reveal the small silver ring, its glow having extinguished. He's slightly confused though, as he's so close to Milah he assumed it would glow as well but then it dawns on him that he let her go and his heart was so full of Emma even now, 300 years before her birth. It's then that he suspects you can only have one true love at a time.

He's all of a sudden hit with the realization of what this really means, and the choice he has to make. If he goes into that tavern now and Milah falls in love with him, she's doomed and he will again have to watch another person he loves ripped from him. Everything will happen as it did only this time he will be leading her to her death instead of saving her from an unhappy life. If he spares her the grief of their love, of losing Bae then he risks the chance that Emma will never come to be.

He looks into the tavern window and he can see her. She looks radiant, full of life , she's laughing and drinking with his crew. She is just as he remembers her, and he feels his heart swell a little. He longs to go inside and wrap his arms around her, feel the warmth of her body, and celebrate the fact of her very existence. His crew would think him mad though, and she while she would probably be receptive to his roguish charms, at the same time he's a stranger to her, just a dream and a hope of adventure right now.

He takes a small step back from the tavern, looks up at the bright night sky and prays for guidance.

"Did you need something?" a little voice comes from behind him.

He turns around to see a miniature sized Blue Fairy, hovering just above his line of sight.

"I have an important choice to make and I'm not sure what to do." He remarks casually, unsure of what to tell her, how much she might know.

"Well all choice comes with a price, much like magic, which by the way is radiating off you...Killian." She quirks her head at him, a telling smile on her lips.

His eyes shoot up and boar into her now "You know who I am?"

"Yes, there are many things I know, of course the future is always a puzzle and choice can lead it astray but some things are meant to come to pass no matter what." She gives him a tender smile.

"If I don't go in there I can change Milah's life, I can give up the seven years we spent together. If I go in there I will watch her die. Or I can choose to let her go." His voice comes out more broken then he suspected it would, he's trying very hard to remain strong.

"You could always save her from her fate, not ever return to this port, spare her and yourself the pain, live a longer life together?" Her suggestion sounds to him like a question.

"But then I'd never know Emma and our love, As long as I have this ring I'd just have the memories of her and is it fair to be with Milah when I'm so deeply in love with the memory of another?" "And even without the ring I fear there may always be an empty spot in my heart." "And what if Emma doesn't come to be, regardless?" He stares down again at the circle of destiny that he's holding in the palm of his hand.

"Well if she's the product of true love, the truest of loves is always meant to be, you would just have to have faith that her parents would find each other.

"What if I choose to let Milah go and I give you this ring...it's said to lead one to their true love. Could you insure that it finds its way into the hands of her father's ancestors? It will mean I won't remember any of my future but it will also insure that both Emma and Milah are safe, safe from ever loving me"

"You would do that, you would give up two great loves, that's pretty selfless...are you sure?" She looks at him like she's intent to draw something out of him. " I can promise that Emma will be born but this choice will change the fates for a lot of people in many ways both good and bad, including yourself."

"I've had two great loves in my life and that's more than most men get..." his voice trailed off and suddenly he was alone again.

Another little voice comes from his feet and draws him from his thoughts once more. "Are you a real pirate Sir?"

He allows his eyes to trial down then, his face pale as he is pretty sure what he'll find. Sure enough it's a young boy with Henry's eyes... Bae.

Not once had he thought what his decision would mean for Henry and his existence.


	3. Chapter 3

**Choice: A Past Rewritten...**

**AN/ Thanks to everyone who's reading this...the reviews, private messages and follows really mean a lot...I have the whole story mapped out but really struggled with this chapter...I've sat down to write it 4 times and each time I just couldn't...even though I knew where I wanted to go with this, this chapter is was/is all about the choices we make and the reasoning behind them ... I guess in a way you can say like Killian I real struggled with what decision to make here too. The other chapters pretty much wrote themselves...I wish this one had.**

**Part III: New Beginnings or Old Mistakes.**

Not once had he thought what his decision would mean for Henry and his existence. ...

His eyes skimmed the small boys frame before again meet his eyes to Baelfire's

"Aye Boy that I be, what was it that gave me away?" He struggled to keep his eyes connected to the boy, his eyes too much like Henry's and the wound of Henry's death still too fresh. Emma's screams as she watched her... no their... boy's soul being ripped from his body still rang in his ears. If only they had realized sooner that Peter Pan had merely been a puppet and that the man behind him was the greatest danger of all. A man that they had thought that they'd rescued from Pan's clutches...a man that had returned to Storybrooke with them...and had simply bided his time...oh how foolish they'd been.

There wasn't much time now, the Crocodile would be in trying to get Milah to leave. Although he supposed she'd be back tomorrow night and the night after that. No, he had to decide now. He can't help but wonder if his Emma would ever forgive him if he chooses what he had first planned on. He'll be striping her of a lot...Neal...Henry... their unborn child...him. But on the flip side of that he's also sparing her a life without her parents, her childhood, being betrayed by Neal, giving up Henry, watching Graham die, and all the heartache of losing Henry. Her life will be completely rewritten now and while there are no ways to ensure sadness won't still touch her life, she'll have her parents love. And there is no guarantee that if he follows the same path they'll be able to defeat the hardships to come. The future is tricky and manipulating it even more so.

If he makes this choice, if he doesn't run away with Milah then his stubborn beautiful lass will never actually exist. Is he robbing her of who she is then? There are so many questions that he just can't answer. Emma is strong it's the core of who she is and maybe changing her past won't change who she is in her very soul? This all seems unfair to him, this choice, this responsibility, he never asked to play the role of the Gods, and yet it's his burden, his price for using magic.

A heavy sigh escapes his mouth. There will never be a right choice, and nothing and everything seems to be right about the one he's about to make.

She'll be the same but so very different. He wants her to have that, to grow-up loved. She deserved that. She deserved everything. He tries hard to imagine her in ball gowns, toddling around in a palace, falling in love without her walls, being open to it, getting married and getting to keep her children. It's all he wants for her and more. This Emma, this one that will never be his, this one that his imagination is creating, while he stands still taking a long hard look at Baelfire.

Baelfire's life will be different too; hopefully he'll never be abandoned by either of his parents. And perhaps there is some way to insure that he and his family leave this village and seek the adventure he knows that Milah is craving. Perhaps with a new start she could love her husband once more? He shoots the boy his most menacing of stares, a plan brewing in his mind as he unsheathes his sword and aims it at the boy's neck.

"uhm...you ...you look like a pirate ...I'm...I'm sorry ..I didn't mean any harm."

"Ye best reckon twice before starin' at a pirate lad, ye'd be smart t' high-tale it out o' this town wit' your family, beg that father of yours to relocate. Once Pirates come to town ...no one is safe." The evil intentions that lace his voice and are enough to make the poor lad's knees quake in fear, but that's the point after all.

As he draws his sword back he watches as the young Baelfire quickly runs from him and into the waiting arms of his concerned looking Pappa, tears are running down his face. He hates himself for having to scary the boy but it's a small price to be paid. Rumplestiltskin looks in his direction but he's shrouded by the darkness and cannot be seen. His eyes catch Milah as she takes Bae from his father's arms, hugging the boy close to her chest. He hears her whisper words of reassurance as the boy recounts their exchange and he knows in his heart that this is the right choice, the right choice for everyone. Right choices aren't always the easiest, and he feels as though his Emma would be disappointed in him for not fighting, but he can't dwell on that...right now he needs to insure that Bae and his family leave town.

Entering the tavern he goes to his men, who are all relishing in ale and women. His plan now fully formed in his head to scare Rumplestiltskin and his family enough that he takes his family and flees this village. The risk of losing them and of the dangers will hopefully be enough to entice him to leave and he lays out his plan to his most trusted sailors.

By the time he has sent his men on their way to Milah's dwelling the sun is starting to spark the sky.

"You just given-up a lot Killian Jones, it takes a brave man to sacrifice two loves for the hope of a better life without it!" "Are you sure that they will be better, a life without True Love isn't much of a life at all?" The Blue Fairy whispers from behind him.

"Milah will have the love of family, and maybe she can learn to love her husband again... and Emma will find a new love, one that isn't as damaged and dark as I, I've been selfish for far too long." He hears his voice waver for a moment at the thought of his Emma in the arms of another, but as quickly as the thought came he tired to shake it. "Here's the ring, please just insure that it makes its way into the proper hands."

"Your selflessness touches me Jones, perhaps there is a way for you to hang onto your memories, and it seems unfair that no one will remember the great loves you've shared."

Killian watches as the Fairy levitates the ring from his hand as she starts to weave her magic and he can feel himself being mesmerized by the tiny sparks emanating from her wand. He's so mesmerized that he fails to see the magic as it works its way onto the ring, causing it to glow and replicate until two identical rings fall into his palm.

"What...I..."

"Your sacrifice has been great, and Emma and Henry deserve to be remembered as they were."

"..and what of Milah and Bae...what will become of them?" He feels his heart speeding up

"Oh I know not their fate...well except the boys ...he will die at 14 in the ogre wars, unless of course someone ends them first." She turns to leave with a wink and he sees her arm move fast as she tosses something in his direction...


End file.
